Survival following localised aortic atherosclerotic plaque rupture.

Spontaneous rupture of the aorta due to ruptured atherosclerotic plaque is extremely rare. Despite the high prevalence of atherosclerosis, only four cases have been reported to have been identified and treated successfully; the remainder were diagnosed postmortem. We report a surviving case of pericardial tamponade due to highly localised aortic atherosclerotic plaque rupture.